Energy Outreach Colorado is a winner in the DBJ’s 2023 Partners in Philanthropy awards program.
By Denver Business Journal Staff, Denver Business Journal
Dec 8, 2023
Energy Outreach Colorado
Top local executive: Jennifer Gremmert, CEO & Executive Director
Founded: 1989
No. of Denver-metro employees: 50
Phone: 303-875-8750
Website: energyoutreach.org
Mission statement: EOC leads a network of industry, state and local partners to support, stabilize and sustain Coloradans to afford their energy needs.
Origin story: EOC was founded in 1989 to address the gap between decreasing federal funding for energy assistance and the home energy needs of low-income Coloradans. Since then, we have worked with community organizations, energy companies, policymakers and individual supporters to deliver nationally recognized programs to help all Coloradans afford home energy.
Evolution: Our network of partners has grown and diversified to now include over 150 statewide agencies and service contractors. We serve individual participants, nonprofits that serve income-qualified individuals and multi-family affordable housing.
Big success: In 2022 we served 35,005 households statewide. 23,265 households were helped through our energy bill payment assistance program with over 2,532 of these being homes with seniors, 6,456 households with disabilities and 1,116 homes with veterans.
How does your organization partner with the business community? We host a golf event where for-profits can provide sponsorships to support our mission. We also host volunteer events that raise our visibility and provide an opportunity for organizations to get involved.
Tell us about your sources of funding and support: We partner with several utility companies — a big one being Xcel Energy. It provides financial and resource support that contributes to furthering our mission. Many companies in the energy sector are supporters of EOC — that includes PDC Energy, Liberty Energy, plus Namaste Solar hosts a fund campaign for us each year.
How do you measure the effectiveness of your programs? What do you do if something is not working well? We measure each project’s impact calculating energy savings, dollars saved and number of houses served. We also track all dollars spent, financial assistance provided and measure the data year over year.
Collaboration: Through meetings and regular check-ins. Plus a sharing of ideas and resources.
What’s next? Nothing at this moment.
Is there anything else you want to share about your organization? Energy Outreach Colorado is a strong, nimble and effective organization that Coloradans can trust to provide critical help to income-qualifying households in need. We are grateful to all of our partners and supporters who help us make this possible. Together, we power stability.
